Hi Everyone,
I know that some of the things I am about to discuss are common sense and I truly hope that everyone takes some time to research all of the challenges of adding one of these special minerals to your collection.
I recently acquired a fantastic and historical Cinnabar specimen from a well known European mineral collection. The specimen was collected at the Almadén Mines in Spain. The Almadén Mines in Ciudad Real, are part of the “Mercury Heritage: Almadén and Idrija”, that have been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. They are the largest mercury sites in the world and had been in operation during Roman times until the present day.
I purchased the specimen from a reputable vendor here in the US. (Who I will not name since I am in the process of communicating with them about this particular specimen and it shipping container.)
I had made preparations to receive this very special mineral with the intention of storing it with extreme care until an appropriate display case can be constructed.
I knew that there would be some leached mercury droplets present on and around the specimen and expected to see some of the mercury around the matrix where it made contact with the packaging material.
When opening the box upon arrival, I started to remove the plastic wrap when I noticed some very small silver flashes coming from between plastic wrap layers. I had found mercury where I didn’t expect it!
It seems the mercury was most-likely deposited throughout the packaging material (polyethylene plastic).
This tells me that the effort in packaging the specimen was handled without much consideration for the presence of mercury and potential contamination.
Look closely and you can see some droplets in and around the matrix and in the plastic.
I had my mercury collection tools ready but wasn’t expecting to need these until I actually had reached the specimen.
I collected over 1 mL of free Hg from the plastic wrap (the Hg ball in the glass containment vial) before even getting near the specimen. What was challenging was moving the smaller mercury spheres towards each other to make them large enough to extract with the glass syringe. Since they were in and on the plastic, they were statically charged, and did not like getting near each other.
Now I have to consider what to do with all of the plastic wrap that may still have some mercury contamination. Will have to do some more research into local laws for proper disposal of mercury contaminated materials.
Pretty sure this will raise a few eyebrows with local authorities, so I am also reaching out to the local University to see what they recommend. Not looking forward to those conversations.
Please, do some serious research on all aspects of keeping toxic mineral specimens or gemstones in your collection or inventory.
Cheers!
